The
Second World War is still a marker of identity and politics everywhere
in Europe today. Finland is no exception to this rule, and the
ambiguities of its international position and war policy have been
reflected in the developments in the memorial and political treatment of
this conflict. The Cold War, which saw Finland trying to pacify its
relations with the Soviet Union, made the Second World War a delicate
subject to deal with. The Soviet aggression of 1939 as well as Finland’s
alliance with Nazi Germany in 1941 are subject to various
reinterpretations in this particular context. Subsequently, the years
1990-2000 saw a revival of nationalist discourse on these issues. The
aim of this short article is to capture the evolution of the Finnish
public debate on the Second World War, focusing on the important
differences between this specific national memory and a more general
European memory of the conflict.